What does the December festive season look like for you? Is it party after party? Are you hosting Christmas events for family and friends? Do you feel like there’s food everywhere, and possibly too much of it at times??
Many people view the festive season as an opportunity to overindulge, ‘let go’, and tell themselves they’ll start looking after their health in the new year. The diet industry thrives on this type of ‘permissive’ diet thinking - taking advantage of the guilt and shame that often follows our December eating habits. January is the busiest month for gyms, personal trainers, weight loss companies, diet supplements and products manufacturers and stockists. Australians are starting every new year with a new determination and focus for their weight/size/shape goals and there is a multibillion-dollar industry that benefits from our body image insecurity and festive food relationship.
All the unique eating opportunities that come with the month of December doesn’t have mean you view it with an ‘all or nothing’ approach. You can continue to eat peacefully, intuitively and with a healthy, balanced approach just like any other month. You can eat more sweet foods, you can eat less vegetables, you can do absolutely anything you want with your eating choices. We do not need to be bound by food rules any more than we need to allow permissive overindulgence. Those two extreme behaviours fuel and perpetuate the dieting cycle that so many are stuck in.
If this resonates with you, and you would like to do things differently in the lead up to this year’s festivities, here are some tips for feeling free in your December eating habits:
· Try to avoid restricting your eating before events. If you know there is going to be a lot of delicious food at a party or a Christmas celebration, you may feel tempted to undereat beforehand. Try to avoid this type of restrictive dieting behaviour because it will set you up for overeating, and possibly (and more extremely) bingeing. Your body wants you to trust that it will make balanced choices even with an overabundance of food choice. Eat as ‘normally’ as you would on other days, with a variety of regular, nutritious foods. You are then more likely to be intuitive at the event rather than ravenous.
· Similarly, after a festive event where you might have overindulged, you may be tempted to restrict your eating following the event. You may feel the desire to ‘work off’ what you ate or try and undereat to compensate for the amount you ate at a party. Again, try to avoid this compensatory dieting behaviour as it rarely remains isolated, and it can be difficult to break the cycle once you begin. Listen to your internal cues like physical hunger to know when your body is ready to eat again, even if it sooner than what you would like. Remember to trust yourself and reject external cues where possible.
· Go into an event with intention but not rules. If you know what type of festive event it is, and you have an idea of the types of food that will be offered, you can go in with a supportive food intention. This may be deciding that you will allow yourself any food you like but you will check in with yourself regularly in between servings to decide whether you want more or not. You are not denying yourself any food, and enjoying delicious options, but you are being intentional with your choices, so you don’t end up feeling stuffed full. A self ‘check in’ might look like pausing before choosing a food to ask yourself if you really want that particular food, or if you want it just because it happens to be there or be offered to you. It might also look like pausing during a serving of food to determine whether your stomach wants more or is content. It take approximately 20 minutes for the satiety message to reach our brain and let us know we have had enough. So in saying this, another tip is to eat slowly. The helpful thing about festive occasions is you quite often get to socialise while eating, which allows you to eat more slowly.
· A social eating environment often means you don’t get to eat mindfully, as there is noise, distractions, laughing, talking, watching, dealing with children and so on. That’s all part of the nature of Christmas family events, so where possible, find small opportunities to be mindful while eating. Tune in to your senses to better experience your food and takes breaks in between bites to check in with your body.
· Decide on your food boundaries ahead of time to support your health. You do not need to implement rules or restrictions, but many people know of certain foods that do harm to their health. For example, there are some potato chip brands that contain MSG that have immediate and negative effects on our body and behaviour, so we don’t eat those foods. I’m also allergic to foods and drink with sulphites.
For each food boundary you have, provide an option for yourself or your child to still have food choices. For example, if my children do not get to have these specific chips, I will show them the other snack foods available to them (it’s highly likely there are a range of snack options for them, so they won’t feel like they’re missing out on anything). Your food boundary may be that you would like to first choose a variety of nutritious lunch foods to put on your plate before you can all eat as much of the desserts as you like. Food boundaries look different for all families and for different Christmas events, but just remember to provide an option or a choice with a boundary.
· Avoid using moral language around food like ‘bad’, ‘naughty’, ‘junk’ and so on. If you choose to eat a food with little to no nutritional value, choose it because you want to enjoy it without guilt or shame. Don’t contribute to conversations about dieting or working off food and challenge it where you feel comfortable to speak up. Part of breaking the dieting cycle is rejecting the language that comes with it.
· Continue a balanced approach to physical activity during December. You may be tempted to avoid exercise or do less because you see the month as a ‘write off’ and you’ll start again in January. Again, this permissive thinking that does not support a positive food/body relationship. Listen to your body with its movement needs just like you are listening to your body with its nutrition needs. You may feel like moving more or less than usual, but choose intuitively and not as part of the dieting ‘start next month’ cycle.
I hope these few tips are helpful, and I’d love to hear the ways in which you’re heading into the festive food season with freedom and peace.
Happy festive freedom eating!
Alyssa